The present invention relates generally to network computing, network architecture, network management, and network switching and, in particular, to topology identification and miswire detection.
The fabric of a high performance switched network included a sequence of numbered switches connected in any of several configurations. The network manager for this switched network was able to identify the managed network through specific input. The network manager required that the topology be manually specified by name and that the individual switch members be specified by number and location. There would be a significant improvement if software could identify the network switches by observing the switch-to-switch connections and, then, computing the needed information, such as the configuration topology, the switch numbers, and any miswires in the network.